The invention relates generally to a telecommunications networks having voice response systems such as voice mail and, more particularly, to a system for screening and deferring the answering of incoming calls.
It will be understood that the typical telecommunications network consists of a switching system connected to other switching systems in the public switched telephone network where selected ones of the switching systems are connected to customer premise equipment such as telephone sets, terminals, personal computers or the like. To provide voice mail (i.e. the ability for a calling party to leave a personal recorded message for a called party) and other voice response services a switching system is typically connected to a voice response unit consisting of a voice messaging platform, announcement platform and control unit. The switching system also may have access to an advanced intelligence platform for providing calling party identification information.
In existing systems, an incoming call from a calling party to a called party generally can be treated in one of three ways. First, the called party can answer the call by going off-hook such that a connection is established between the calling and called parties. Second, the call can be switched to the voice messaging platform of the voice response system allowing the calling party to leave a recorded message that can be retrieved by the called party at a later time. The calling party is switched to the voice response system if the called party does not go off-hook after a predetermined period (the called party can be on another line or not answering his or her telephone) or the calling party may be allowed to access the called party's voice mail by dialing a predetermined digit sequence. Third, the called party could conference the calling party into an existing call by initiating the switching system's conference circuit as is well known.
In order to avoid "losing" the incoming call, existing prior art systems require that the called party must go off-hook and answer the incoming call before the calling party is switched to voice mail or terminates the connection by going on-hook. If the called party is currently connected to a third party, this requires that the current caller must be placed on hold before the incoming call can be handled. Thus, the third party is made aware that the called party has received another call and must be put on hold. The called party must then juggle two "live" calls. Such a scenario is frustrating for the called party and third party and is inconvenient for the calling party.
Thus, a system that allows a called party to screen an incoming call and temporarily defer answering the incoming call without putting a currently connected party on hold and that efficiently uses network resources is desired.